No Comments

Popular Science is shutting off online comments because comments can be bad for science. Ignorant comments can pollute otherwise intelligent online discussions (this also happens during conversations at our dinner table, occasionally-oh all right, a lot) and can undermine public understanding of science itself. In teacher’s editions (the books with all the answers-and sometimes these are incorrect answers) these might be called common misconceptions. The thing about science is that there are some rather extreme subjective opinions about some topics that really go against the objective nature of science in general, like those held on the topics of evolution and climate change. Some comments can definitely undermine public understanding and appreciation of science and take these discussions away from the science side of the house. Comments also have the power to shape public opinion and eventually public opinion holds sway over public decisions on research funding. Often nonscientific views on things like evolution are shouted down by other viewers, but not always because Popular Science and some other publications don’t have the resources to moderate all comments. Hence the decision to shut off online comments. It seems like a lot of people do believe everything they read, including the comments so maybe in this instance ‘no comments’ is for the best.